Many upper schoolers are experiencing a big step in their lives in entering the world of driving. Some students—myself included—opted to start their driving over the summer, sacrificing their precious free time to take lessons. This was hard for me because, like everyone else, I enjoy free time. Despite this, whenever I’m driving, I always thank myself for making this decision. It was the right call.

Here are a few reasons to begin driving in the summer rather than in the school year. The first one is time management.

This was the reason I decided to go ahead and start this past summer. While most students would cringe at the thought of using up their summer in a cramped classroom or in a hot car, they don’t think ahead to the school year. Most students spend hours on homework or extracurriculars. Parker upper school students average 3.4 hours of homework a night. Even if you have less than this, a couple hours paired with a sport or club, and you have nearly no free time.

Taking a driver’s course will amount to a few hours a week plus however much you’re driving on your own–not to mention the time it takes to study for various driving tests. Many students feel overwhelmed when they have to do all this with school. According to Direct Line car insurance, the average student takes 45 hours of driving with a mentor (Illinois requires 50 hours plus around four 2-hour lessons) plus another 22 hours of experience just to pass a driving exam. To master driving, it takes longer.

Another reason is the signature Chicago winters, which make driving many times more difficult. The winter in Chicago makes all the roads icy, and anyone who has driven in Chicago knows some of the roads already aren’t in the best condition. Couple this with ice and some bad drivers, and an accident could happen.

Some people may argue that it’s helpful to start learning in winter so as to be prepared for when they have their license, but what they don’t understand is that if you start any time in the summer, you still will get winter driving experience since you must hold your permit for 9 months.  This way you already have a foundation of driving instead of going out and starting in some of the hardest conditions.

With 20 driving schools in the Chicago area from Evanston to Hyde Park, classes are accessible to almost anyone. One school popular among Parker kids, Central Driving Academy, is an 8-minute drive from Parker and even lists Parker as a pickup location for driving lessons. Personally, I took lessons at Central Driving Academy, and I can say it was very effective and straight to the point, allowing me to get all the information I needed in the shortest amount of time. I have also heard many positive reviews about Nova Driving school. Despite this accessibility, some people still wait to start driving. This is most likely because of the accessibility of transportation in Chicago. It’s too easy to call an Uber or simply take the CTA.

But driving services such as Uber or Lyft have been riddled with controversy lately. Starting with ethics–Uber has been wrapped up in ongoing sexual harassment problems, heightening last June with 20 employees being fired in a sexual harassment probe. On top of this, drivers often complain about barely breaking even after the cost for gas and maintenance, and aside from a 15% discount from Autozone or Jiffy Lube, Uber doesn’t help much.

If you aren’t concerned about ethics, you can look at safety–specifically at qualifications for Uber drivers. Aside from having a 4 door car and being able to drive legally, there are no qualifications regarding any experience. Uber even made the oldest car accepted for driving in Chicago a 2001 model, which is the lowest standard for Uber in the country.

Looking at the CTA, there are a few major flaws. To start, according to “The Sun Times,” crime rates on the CTA are up 19% already this year. Since 2015, 1906 index crimes—larger crimes pertaining to robbery and worse—have been reported on the L trains alone. To add to this, there are so many complaints about trains breaking down or buses bunching up that the CTA has created a whole website titled, “When things go wrong on the CTA” trying to explain and cool the anger of riders. I rode the CTA a lot before I started drivers ed, and I definitely saw my fair share of shady people and annoyingly long waits.

Many Parker students know how to drive, but don’t have a car or don’t have permission to drive their parents’ car. If you don’t know anyone who has a car and who’s willing to let you borrow it every once in awhile, there are many car rental services that offer extended rentals by the month or year. This is better than constantly using driving services or public transportation because it gives you good experience with not only driving, but owning and maintaining a car.

Obviously there are other complications such as summer camp or financial matters, which are unavoidable, but if you are facing this decision next year, deciding if you want to start now, or doubting your choice, I urge you to give it some serious thought and begin learning in the summer.